I'm really not an ICE connoisseur, so I put up with the standard head unit for several years

Bluetooth connectivity got the better of me, so I ended up buying one of these

Clarion FB289RBT head unit

Much nicer sound and much clearer too.

However, this then showed up the speakers, which distorted quite easily. I also had one of my rear speakers buzzing at certain frequencies, so today, I decided to sort it out.

I'd already bought these from WilkyWay for the bargain price of £50

Infinity Kappa 65.7 CS - components, with crossovers and tweeters

I fitted them, but found the rears were still buzzing, so decided to shove some slightly better 6x9s in the rear. An hour and a trip to Halfords later (and another £50 lighter) saw me with these:

Infinity Reference 9623i 6x9s

All fitted and working

I was considering getting a small sub for the boot, but I now realise I simply don't need one.

the sound is massively improved - I hear things in the music that I've never heard before. I have plenty of bass, loads of treble - its just clear and precise

And all this for about £250 including the headunit (which by the way is utterly brilliant for making phone calls - many people I'm calling can't even tell I'm in a car)

It miffs me that I've spent so long with seriously poor audio in the car, when such a small amount of money has given me such a vast improvement.

It really makes me wonder what a PROPER setup is like, with subs, amps and even better speakers. However, as I said at the top, I'm really not that much into music - I often drive hundreds of miles with nothing but 5 cylinders through a Supersprint for musical accompaniment, so I'm chuffed with what I have

Glad you have seen the light, or rather heard it

I have been banging on about the standard fit Clarions being really poor for ages. Newer HUs from nearly ALL manufacturers will sound so much better even with the standard speakers. Change them too, like you have, and you have a great system.

ICE is 75% installation and 25% kit. Choosing a a few choice parts and fitting them well can have fantastic results.
I had some infinity speakers once. These produced more, better controlled base than a friends cheep sub.
Probably the ultimate set-up would be treble in the dash (upgrade existing ones) mids in the doors and 8 or 10 inch in the rear.

Great choice of speakers there too. I have the kappa's up front running of my amp they sound great. Just not sure what to do speaker wise in the back as of yet. Choices...choices.

I have just fitted a sub in the boot, just a small one (Infinity 1040w reference) running off an Alpine 250w amp. Just like you Nigel I thought there was no need for the sub but without it you are missing out. I am listening to Elbow at the moment and it's like having the band in the car with me but at a decent sound level and you can hardly hear the music out side the car. I can now hear the thump of the base drum, the low down sounds that make up any decent track. If we bump into each other at one of the Autoitalia events this year I will if you like give you a demo (that's if you have managed to stop yourself buying more speakers...)

Did you fit the fronts yourself?
I've had a set of these for a while now but struggled to feed the cable thruogh to the door, any tips?

It is so easy on the coupe to feed the cable. Just unclip the rubber feed pipe from the door and body. Then pull back the carpet from the upper A pillar and you will see an access hole and can feed the wire out into the door shut, through the rubber pipe and then into the door where if you have taken out the standard speaker you can see the wire.
Re-clip the rubber sleeve in place, solder the wires and jobs a goodun.

Far easier than most cars and no door card removal required

Nigel if you want another step change in sound quality *and* a nicer drive, then slap on some sound deadining material in the doors/bootlid. You won't believe the difference, and there will be less road noise as well.

I've lost my enthusiasm for decent in car audio, ever since I spent months installing a serious setup and then went on holiday; when I returned I found out that the person I left my car with had written it off!

bit of a doddle really - I removed the standard speaker and the foam protector, then I wedged my hand through the hole and fed the cable through the concertina door grommet - you can get your fingers almost all the way through it anyway

I pulled the footwell carpet down a bit and grabbed the end of the cable.

The hardest job was finding a place to locate the crossovers - they're pretty big and I had to do a fair bit of upside-down footwell grovelling - ended up fixing them to the sides of the heater/ventilation casing behind the centre console.

I wrote the text above last night afer I'd fitted and tested the kit. I tried it out properly on the way to work this morning and I have identified a problem - the door speakers are so good that its rattling the internals of the doors - there's obviously quite a lot of stuff to vibrate in a door - glass, channels, motors, door cards etc. I'm now wondering if dropping the bass in the doors and fitting a sub wouldn't be a bad idea after all.

I REALLY need to be satisfied on what I have though - I can see the audio slope being almost as slippery as the engine modding precipice that I fell off a couple of years ago

Dynamat Dynamat Dynamat.

Maybe a little more patience is required by myself.

I've done the hard work cutting and fitting tweeter in the existing mesh that fits in the dashboard.

I'll agree with Jef, the installation of hifi kit is the most important thing without a doubt. And to see what can be acheived, take a trip to a decent local car hifi dealr (I'm near Source and Sounds) and wander in looking all excited, as if your keen to spend and ask them what all the fuss is about. If they're any good at all, they'll have a demo car to audition. Pretty special actually to hear a qulity install. It can be a wallett-sapper in the same way speed can be, my Lexus went with a double-DIN Alpine screen unit in.... Dynamat makes a huge difference, in both quality and effective volume, you reduce the low pitched hum of the car. But yes, installation is very important, read up on the ICE forums about cable routing and stuff and it'll sound spot on!

http://www.avforums.com/forums/car-entertainment-ice/

I design HIFI and home theatre speakers because I am a geek.
I need to measure the space behind the rear to see if the speakers I have chosen have the correct Thiele and Small perimeters for the space available.

The only thing that concerns me is the distance between the front woofer and the tweeter and how that will play with the sound stage. I am guessing that they will need to be a bout 90degree behind the mids and the subs will need to be about 90 behind these.
I might have to build a passive crossover for the front, the rears may just be reversed polarity however an active crossover with a built in delay would produce superior sound.

Then again I may find that if I get some nice set of components the mid and treble problem is already solved. I have been looking at a 4 channel amp that can be used to drive the front and the sub sets and allows a delay to be dialled in to the sub as well as having a frequency filter.

Hey Nigel nice to see you join the audio upgrade ranks..hehe

Got a quick Q for you though, that H/U you have says BlueTooth but can you stream audio from your Bluetooth mp3 player (or phone) through it ? All the specs I read on it aren't very clear about it at all.

yes, I can stream from my bluetooth PDA - quality is a bit reduced though, so its easier and better just to stick the music on an SD card and put it in the H/U

TBH, the lack of a CD hasn't bothered me at all - I either listen to the radio or the MP3s and the phone hooks up to the H/U as soon as I switch it on and when a call comes in, it mutes the music and plays through the speakers - perfect!

Since i got my bluetooth stereo i will never go back. Really is a great device. Jef_uk thats pretty much the set up im running at the moment and sounds :thumbs:

Gona upgrade my speakers to some Aplines - 16x9 in the rear, and 13cm in the front, with separate tweeters that im gona mount in place of the standard ones. Will I get everything I need to connect the tweeters up in with the speakers ? advice appreciated

16x9 or 6x9?
Anyway you will need some cable (i used 2 core power flex) to link from the crossover (installed just below the tweeter in the dash ends)to the speaker in the door.
Don't forget to sound sproof Rich, I used sticky lead flashing from BQ and it works a treat by removing vibration. Install the speakers, turn them up and listen for the vibration. Place a hand gently to the side of the speaker and if this reduces the vibration stick a length of flashing to it. Repeat this until there is no vibration. It's that easy and loads cheaper than e-dead etc that costs the same as the speaker itself.

Cheers shifty, yep I meant 6x9 !!

Quick question - do all front car speakers with separate tweeters require cross overs - what do the crossovers do? i assume filter out any frequencies that the tweeters cant handle?? also does anyone have experience of JBL car speakers ? ( sorry to highjack this tread ) Rich

Yes you need a crossover or the tweeters will be compromised ny all the unwanted frequencies. The standard items have a crude crossover on them.

Just out of interest have you used the standard front and rear speaker cables?

No. You can't use the standard cables for the fronts as they split up in an area of the dash that you can't reach. Eaiser to re-wire with some decent cable from Richer Sounds.

This should be interesting then as i havent a clue how to wire them into the head unit.

PMSL - @ Nigel - sounds like you've achieved what you set out to do and are very happy as a result. I'd stay at that stage if I were you. Reemember what happened when you were at 300bhp and decided to go for more?

It's a little funny some people put a lot of doh on the kit itself, then play compressed MP3's?
As at home I can hear a clear difference in quality between CD´s and most MP3's..
It's strictly CD in my Coupe!

But a car is an accoustically terrible environment for music anyways

Im stictly cd too for the same reason.

Totally agree cd only and have always said the same